Russian athletes dominated competitive figure skating in 1999, sweeping every event at the European championships in January as a prelude to a more impressive sweep at the world championships in March. At the latter event, contested in Helsinki, Fin., Russia became the first country to capture every world championship medal since ice dancing was added to the competition schedule in 1952.

The Russian mastery was led by 18-year-old Aleksey Yagudin, who made a successful defense of the world and European men’s singles titles he captured in 1998. At the European championships in Prague, Yagudin survived an off-key short program made worse by a fall before he came back to skate an extraordinary long program that included a quadruple toe loop and seven triple jumps. Yagudin won top marks from the judges to lead the Russian sweep in which Yevgeny Plushenko, his 16-year-old training partner, finished second, and Aleksey Urmanov, the 1994 champion, took third.

A greater surprise at Prague came in the performance of 26-year-old Mariya Butyrskaya, who won the women’s gold medal over her much younger competition with a demanding long program that included seven triple jumps. When Yuliya Soldatova, age 17, and Viktoriya Volchkova, age 16, won the silver and bronze medals, respectively, it marked the first time the Russian women had swept their competition, to match what the Russian men had done in every European championship since 1996. The Russian team of Mariya Petrova and Aleksey Tikhonov captured the pairs gold medal. Russia struck gold yet again with the ice dancing team of Anzhelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsyannikov.

In the U.S. championship held in Salt Lake City, Utah, Michelle Kwan, age 18, won her third women’s national title on February 13, despite a late fall on a triple lutz jump. Kwan landed six other triple jumps without trouble, but it may have been an ill omen that the U.S. competition included many skaters who could not complete even one triple jump. Naomi Nari Nam, a 13-year-old too young to compete in the world championships, finished second, and Angela Nikodinov, age 19, was third. The men’s championship went to 22-year-old Michael Weiss, who had barely missed the U.S. gold medal on two previous occasions. He fell on a quadruple toe loop but landed eight triple jumps cleanly.

At the world championships on March 25, Yagudin captured his second straight men’s title with an exceptional free-skating program that included the difficult quadruple toe loop and eight triple jumps. Plushenko won the silver medal, as Weiss finished his finest season ever by taking the bronze.

On March 27, Butyrskaya upset Kwan for the women’s world championship with a brilliant performance featuring seven triple jumps, dazzling footwork, and powerful spins. Kwan’s chance of repeating as world champion faded when she fell on a simple double axel and finished fourth in the short program. At the age of 26 years and 272 days, Butyrskaya became the oldest women’s world champion in history, as well as the first Russian to win the women’s title. Russia’s Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze took their second consecutive world pairs gold medal, and defending champions Krylova and Ovsyannikov won in ice dancing.

Speed Skating

During the 1998–99 speed skating season, the short distances were dominated by Canada’s Jeremy Wotherspoon, who won the world sprint championship in February, as well as the World Cup titles at both 500 m and 1,000 m. He also set world records at both distances, but he saw his 1,000-m record of 1 min 8.66 sec fall to rival Jan Bos of The Netherlands after only one day. Bos’s Dutch teammate Rintje Ritsma captured the all-around world championship in Hamar, Nor., in February, but he failed to repeat as overall World Cup titlist, losing to Adne Sondral of Norway.

Gianni Romme of The Netherlands produced the fastest time ever recorded for a 5,000-m, outdoor speed skating race in a 1999–2000 World Cup event in Inzell, Ger., on November 14. Romme skated through freezing temperatures on hard ice and covered the distance in 6 min 31.02 sec. His time was five seconds faster than the former record held by Ritsma.

Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann racked up her 93rd World Cup victory on the same day Romme broke the record at the same track, winning the women’s 1,500-m race the day after she won the 3,000 m. With those races, Niemann-Stirnemann began the 1999–2000 season on a highly consistent note. The 32-year-old German star took the 1998–99 season title at 1,500 m and the overall title for the combined 3,000 m and 5,000 m, the 16th World Cup title of her remarkable career. In February she also had set another world record at 5,000 m and just missed breaking her own record at 3,000 m en route to her eighth all-around world championship.

Chinese skaters dominated the world short-track speed skating championships at Sofia, Bulg., in March. Li Jianjun of China finished as the men’s overall champion after taking the 500-m and 3,000-m finals. Satoru Terao of Japan won the 1,000-m final and finished second to Fabio Carta of Italy in the 1,500 m. Yang Yang (known as Yang Yang [A]) won her third straight overall women’s title with gold medals in the 500-m, 1,000-m, and 3,000-m events. She also took silver behind her identically named teammate, designated Yang Yang (S), in the 1,500-m final. Chinese skaters finished the competition with six individual gold medals and gold medals in both team relays.